Ok, sure, Super Seducer 2 is a thing. It was hard to tell what the deal was with the first one, as it seemed to be presenting itself as a creepy, pick-up artists sort of deal that would do more harm than good. But then it turned out to be just kind of a joke, with more people making fun of it than taking it at face value. By trying and failing to get on consoles, there was an element of controversy about it that almost had the usual discourse spots giving it attention for more than a day or two. Ultimately, it sort of flew by the public consciousness, outside of a goofy video from Dunkey that turned the Steam reviews sections into a bunch of ironic thumbs ups. Will the sequel change that trajectory?

We live in a different time now, as Super Seducer 2 approaches us. There’s still no way the game’s getting to consoles, and the publisher likely won’t even try this time. It’s going to be dumped into the Steam pile, on top of thousands of other games. It will probably get less critical attention too, since the news articles about the game’s announcement are already taking the piss. Everyone is in on the joke now, so if Super Seducer 2 wants to court controversy, it’s going to need to try harder.

Secondly, the entire Steam landscape is different, in a cultural sense. We’re past Super Seducer. We’ve gone through the whole visual novel drama, the rise and swift fall of Agony, and that freakin’ school shooting game. Steam literally threw its hands up in despair at the prospect of moderating its own content. Nobody cares anymore. It’s the wild west, and there’s going to be so much more garbage dropping daily on Steam than ever before. At this point, a goofy dork man who positions himself as a “seduction guru,” despite clearly having no clue if his game is any indication is, well, tame.

In fact, Super Seducer 2 might not even make the irony wave this time around. Dunkey did his bit with the first one already, and that dude gets millions of views on the reg. He doesn’t need to revisit the same material within a span of months. And if the game is just more of the same concept, the people who lined up to run through the first one for laughs might not get the same kick out of it. Or maybe they will; you can never tell with ironic gaming consumption. Sometimes it twists around to genuine enjoyment.

Ultimately, Super Seducer 2 is going to end up being some kind of modern Tommy Wiseau-ass gimmickry, and the new trailer confirms it. Seeing the guru man with a fat raccoon in his arms shows us that everyone’s in on the joke, and that we’re now capitalizing off the metahumor of ironic media consumption.

Does that make Super Seducer 2 fresh or good even? Who knows! You can’t catch lightning in a bottle twice, especially if the first bolt of lightning was more like a an empty LaCroix can rolling across the floor of an empty room.